Brotherly Bonding
by fantaicy
Summary: ONE SHOT. Arthur needs Elyans help. To do what, you ask? To buy Gwen some jewellery of course! Too bad the noble king is utterly hopeless at finding the right piece...


**This is post season 4 so season 5 makes no impact on this one shot WHATSOEVER. Enjoy :D**

Sir Elyan wasn't a man for dramatics. Nope, He just let the other knights do the life saving – he honestly didn't know how he was one of King Arthur's closest knights. Maybe it was because of that one time when he said he would fight against Morgana along with plenty of other knights. Or maybe that one time that... Yeah, Elyan didn't know why. Actually it may be due to the fact that Arthur was married to his sister but Elyan didn't want to think about that.

Since, Gwen had become queen of Camelot, Elyan wasn't entirely sure where he stood with Arthur. Sure they were brothers now but men aren't ones to talk out their feelings. So far they had managed to avoid a chat for over _6 months._ Long time, I know.

One clearly average training day with the knights, Arthur was going through some new tactics. Gwaine strongly believed one of the moves was inspired by this one time a squirrel climbed into Arthur's trousers on a hunting trip.

"So, let me get this straight. We scream like a girl and run around waving our arms like this?" Gwaine proceeded to do a demonstration.

"GWAINE. THIS IS SERIOUS."

"Oh, I'm sure it is, princess" Gwaine winked at the fuming king, flipped his hair and moved back in line with the rest of the knights who were struggling to keep a straight face.

"Let's get down to business, men." Arthur stated as he walked down the line of knights strongly determined to ignore Gwaine mocking his every word. "We may not have anyone currently to fight but we _must_ keep our watch on at all times."

"Especially for squirrels." Gwaine whispered to Elyan immediately shattering the seriousness of the speech entirely.

"If you idiots are finished over there, we can get started." Arthur called to Gwaine and Elyan who just grinned back. "Now pair up and practise the moves I just demonstrated."

"What moves?" Elyan asked Gwaine.

"No idea, let's have a go!" Gwaine suddenly lunged at Elyan and put him in a headlock.

"GWAINE!" Elyan yelled as he tried to get out.

"Lovely weather today, isn't it?"

"NOT FROM DOWN HERE!" Elyan was a terrible fighter against Gwaine as you can see.

"Touchy today aren't we? Not like yourself at all..."

"Put. Me. DOWN."

"As you wish..." Gwaine threw Elyan to the ground and bowed dramatically to the knights who had gathered to watch.

"GWAIN-" Elyan was interrupted from his threat by a furious Arthur storming over. "YOU IDIOTS. HOW CAN I TEACH YOU HOW TO BE KNIGHTS IF YOU WON'T FOLLOW SIMPLE ORDERS."

"Touchy..." Gwaine murmured under his breath so only Elyan and a few other knights could hear as he helped Elyan up. Thankfully Arthur wasn't one of those.

Arthur looked just about ready to kill when suddenly a new voice joined the crowd.

"Arthur?"

Every knight turned to the sound of the voice to see Gwen walking over looking just a little mad.

"Can I talk to you for a second?" She asked Arthur who nodded and they both walked a few paces away from everyone.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Percival asked walking over to Gwaine and Elyan along with Leon.

"Maybe Gwen discovered just how messy Arthur can be." Gwaine snickered.

"Or how much of an idiot he is?" Leon suggested.

"Or suddenly realised she can't be married to such a messy idiot such as Arthur." Percival grinned.

"Guys! Gwen's my sister! She isn't going to leave over such trivial things as how messy he is!" Elyan tried to defend Gwen miserably. It's not his fault. He _had _just been thrown to the ground by Gwaine of all people. He probably managed to hit his head. Poor Elyan.

"And Arthur's your brother-in-law! You should be defending them both!" Gwaine grinned as Elyan rolled his eyes.

"Training's over." Arthur called from the distance and walked off with Gwen.

"Must be serious..." Leon mused watching them walk off in deep discussion.

"Yeah, I bet Gwen found a pair of his underwear that had little dragons on it and she wanted a word." Gwaine grinned. "Tavern, anyone?"

The knights all agreed and after putting away their weapons and armour, they headed off to the pub.

They drank till dawn.

Needless to say, when Elyan woke up, he probably remembered the most out of all the knights that went. Surprisingly enough, Elyan wasn't much of a drinker and would take 4 hours to drink a pint of ale some nights. What Elyan remembered from last night isn't really important to this story though so let's get back to the reason he woke up in the first place.

There was an urgent knocking on the door. Elyan stumbled around to find suitable clothes to look presentable and opened the door to be pushed aside as Arthur entered his room looking worried.

"Is everything alright, Sire?" Elyan asked cautiously grabbing his sword from beside his door as he closed it again.

"Elyan, I know this may sound crazy but I need your help. Gwen is really mad at me." Arthur made himself comfortable on his dresser chair and rested his chin on his hands staring into the mirror. Yes. All the knights had mirrors in their rooms after Gwaine protested to not being able to see how wonderful his hair looked in the morning in which Leon joined in since they had the longer hair in the group. Arthur relented after a week of Gwaine sneaking into Arthurs room at night (who knows how) and would smear mud over Arthur's own mirror. Turns out the King is quite vain of his appearance after all.

"What?! Why is she mad at you this time?" Sensing no danger, Elyan placed his sword back in its position and walked over to Arthur.

Arthur looked indignant at this accusation. "She's never mad at me! ... Well apart from now..." Arthur's face fell slightly.

Elyan knew Gwen wasn't one to get angry over little things so it was clearly something serious.

"You're her brother so I assume you will know the solution?"

"Depends on the situation, sire."

"Please, Elyan. We're brothers now surely you can call me Arthur?"

"You're skirting the issue at hand, _Arthur_." Elyan grinned. It was an amusing site to see Arthur looking so unsure on what to do. He was used to seeing him knowing which route was the safest to avoid trouble or which position to attack from or... you get the idea.

"Apparently I was meant to be celebrating our 6 month marriage yesterday. That's why Gwen interrupted our training session yesterday. She won't talk to me until I make it up to her..." Arthur trailed off and stared at Elyan hoping for an answer.

Who knew Gwen would be so upset over something like this? Maybe it's a women thing. "I see... well Gwen isn't one for dramatics but she isn't one for simplicity either. Have you ever thought of covering a room with candles, blindfolding her, taking her to the room and telling her you're sorry and some other mushy stuff?"

"... I proposed to her like that... the first time." Arthur sighed probably thinking about banning Gwen from Camelot. Elyan decided to ignore it. Although he had been angry he didn't feel the need to show it when it happened knowing Gwen would find a way back somehow and it would also be useless if he left himself.

"You did? How did you come up with that idea?"

"It just came to me?" Elyan had a feeling he had help with_ that_ proposal idea.

"I see... well why not try a re-enactment of the proposal but without a proposal part and just say what you love about her and... stuff." Elyan mentally groaned at having to discuss what to say to his _sister_ but if it made her happy again he was going to have to. Why couldn't he have just asked Merlin instead?

"You know what. That's not a bad idea! I could make her a necklace too!"

"Out of what?!"

"jewellery material?"

"You know Gwen isn't one for processions."

"But if this one means something she'll love it! I need to find the nearest jewellery market."

"That's not making it though?"

Arthur stood up in a determined sort of way ignoring Elyan's response. He walked to the door and turned around, "Meet me at the stables in ten minutes." And then he left leaving a stunned Elyan behind.

"Morning, Elyan!" A way too cheery voice for this early in the morning greeted Elyan as he arrived at the stables exactly 15 minutes later as requested.

"Hello, Merlin. Are you joining us for this trip?" Elyan was confused at how quickly and awake, Merlin was for such an early morning. Turns out the knights hadn't drunk till dawn but rather till they were too drunk to walk. It's a wonder how everyone got back to their rooms.

"Someone has to look after the horses. Besides, I actually _know_ where the Market is." Merlin grinned as he finished attaching a saddle to a third horse.

"Glad you could both make it. I hope the market isn't far, _mer_-lin" Arthur arrived determinedly, interrupting their conversation and hopped onto a horse with an already made saddle.

Merlin rolled his eyes behind Arthur's back and Elyan grinned. Soon enough they were on their journey to another part of Camelot which had a good jewellery stall according to Merlin.

After an hour of wondering around and Arthur and Merlin exchanging insults like it was nothing, they arrived near to a small village that was very busy. There wasn't much room to ride three horses through the village so they tied them up to a tree near to the village and Arthur made Merlin stay with the horses. Elyan and Arthur continued on into the village where stalls stood wherever it was possible, with processions covering the table.

The chaos was enough to make Elyan run for the hills and never come back. Hey, maybe he could live in the trees like some sort of tree man? This is what chaos did to Elyan. Turned him into someone who would seriously consider living in _trees_ just to avoid it.

"At least Merlin was right for once in his life. Right, I suggest we go this way..." His voice disappeared along with his figure into the crowd leaving Elyan at a loss on where to go. He briefly wondered if Arthur would notice if he just went back to Merlin where he could have a nice chat about how stupid Arthur was to make Gwen angry but he quickly decided against this idea. Arthur had come to _him_ for help and help he shall _get_!

Elyan took in a deep breath and dived further into the crowd. Arthur wasn't hard to spot considering he was wearing his armour making him stick out like a ripe fruit in a bowl of rotten ones – not that these people were rotten they just weren't... rich. Elyan sighed; he was never good at comparing things.

"Elyan! I found the stall! Do you think she'd like this?" Arthur was holding up a rather bold statement of a necklace. It was a gold cross on a chunky gold chain. Elyan frowned and shook his head.

"How does that even _begin _to represent Gwen?!"

"You're right..." Arthur placed the necklace back down and browsed a few more before announcing they were to go to another stall because this _clearly_ wasn't the right stall, and disappeared back into the crowd.

Elyan dropped his forehead into his hand and sighed. It was going to be a long day...

"This one?"

"No."

"... How about this one?"

"Absolutely not!"

Turns out the king, talented he may be with fighting was certainly not talented when it came to choosing jewellery. They had gone through the entire market and Arthur hadn't picked out one nice necklace. They all varied from bold and bright to ugly and just plain horrible. And to think Elyan could be resting right now or joking around with Gwaine, Percival and Leon. Oh well, Life is never nice is it? Merlin was probably a prime example of that. Elyan bet Merlin was having the time of his life right now just resting. It seems that Elyan had taken his place as being Arthur's companion for the day.

"Well, _Ely_an what do you suggest we do now since we've just walked through the _ENTIRE MARKET." _Arthur grabbed his hair in frustration.

Elyan sighed. Clearly he was going to have to find a necklace in this market himself. "Wait here. I'll find something."

And after pushing through the crowds for another five minutes he saw a stall that described Gwen perfectly. Clearly this was the stall that Merlin was talking about.

The stall had its fair share of women around it which makes sense since the jewellery on display was elegantly simple. Elyan thanked the heavens that he actually had money on him today since it seemed he would have to pay for the necklace but he _was _doing it for Gwen and Arthur. He chose one and quickly made his way back to Arthur who was standing rather impatiently at the beginning of the market.

"Well?" Arthur demanded.

"I found one." Elyan handed over a small leather parcel, small enough to carry in a pocket.

"It doesn't look like much." Arthur said as he took the parcel.

"Open it then." Elyan sighed. Even though he was often polite around Arthur, the day at this market had made him think differently about the utterly useless king when it came to jewellery.

Thankfully, Arthur either didn't notice his rudeness or chose to ignore it in his curiosity to see the package. Inside the package, Arthur held up a small necklace that had a small diamond wrapped in silver attaching it the delicate chain that would go around the neck of the wearer in question (in this case, Gwen).

"... You know how to find jewellery, that's for sure." Arthur said as he placed the necklace back into the bag with surprising care for such a brawny man. Elyan guessed that was Arthur's way of saying thank you and smiled.

"Let's head back to the horses shall we? Your wife is waiting..."

Arthur smiled slightly. "Thank you. It means a lot that you actually accept me to be a suitable husband for her."

Oh great, Elyan thought, now he was getting serious.

"What better suitability than the noble king of Camelot?" Elyan grinned trying to lessen the tension and Arthur relaxed his shoulders. Something Elyan hadn't even noticed was so tense before. It seems even the King shared his feelings about talking about this subject.

Arthur slung an arm around Elyan as they walked back up to a waiting Merlin and horses and by the time they got back to the castle they were much closer than they were before the journey.

As soon as they arrived back at the stables, Arthur gave another sincere 'Thank you' before running off back to the castle. Literally. Probably to make a long due apology to Gwen.

"You picked the necklace, didn't you?" Merlin stated from behind. Although it sounded like a question, Elyan had a feeling it was more of a statement.

"Well unless Arthur had to face the humility of giving her a horrible necklace, I didn't have much choice," Elyan reasoned laughing.

"Arthur isn't good when it comes to choosing things that aren't to do with battle. I have to serve him, I should know!" Merlin grinned as he started taking off the horse saddles and placed them back in their rightful places.

"If it's ok with you, I may retire for the night. Good night, Merlin." Elyan left after they said they're good byes and walked back to his room which was thankfully close to the castle entrance. Mainly because he was a knight who should protect the castle but since his room was the furthest out of all the knights from the round table, the responsibility fell to Leon (who Gwaine reckoned was immortal) and Percival who were the closest to the castle doors. Elyan didn't complain - Mainly because he hated the idea of the responsibility of an entire castle resting on his shoulders.

As he walked down the darkened corridor he tripped over a rather large object and fell to the floor. A groan told Elyan that this large object was in the form of Gwaine - Looks like he passed out before he got to his room, once again.

Elyan chuckled and sat up. Poking a sleeping Gwaine was the best entertainment for anybody because of the strange sentences he would speak at a single poke. Elyan quickly woke up the other knights in the surrounding rooms and soon they were all poking Gwaine till sunrise.

*poke*

"Mummy, don't let the dragons hurt me!"

**And there you have it! Another one shot for the lovely Elyan! Next up is the long awaited Gwaine! :D Mainly because my friend won't stop begging me to. (Oh yes, feel the shame, EosAella! ... Well any shame that there actually is.) **

**For anyone else reading this, review or the dragons will hurt you! Anyone who reviews gets a nice hug (^.^)**

**Now I know Merlin Series 5 arrives soon so I know a lot of stories will make themselves known in September so I shall be working hard to make my Gwaine story NOT BE UNKNOWN. Mainly because I'm hoping it will be my best one yet but it's nice to hope isn't it? **

**I'll stop babbling now.**

**~ Fantaicy**

**I'm going to start signing off these reviews. How exciting! (not)**


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